


The Aftermath

by tinypinkmouse



Series: The List [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Light-Hearted, M/M, Pre-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), but before everything went to shit, some nebulous time after the first Avengers movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 11:21:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13234620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinypinkmouse/pseuds/tinypinkmouse
Summary: He'd had sex with a god – or alien, or whatever you wanted to call Thor – and he couldn't really remember if it'd been good or not. Now, really, Tony would argue that that was not something to be completely unconcerned about.Sequel toThe List.





	The Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> I've been trying to get some of these nearly finished fics, that I seem to have left untouched (in some cases) for _years_ for some reason or another, into good enough shape that I can post them. Hence a very late sequel. :)

Tony let out a groan. If the pounding in his head, and the taste of something recently having died in his mouth was anything to go by, he didn't want to open his eyes.

"You're awake," someone said in a voice that was way too loud. And yes, Tony knew that it was a lot gentler than normal, but…

"Thor?" he asked, cracking an eye open carefully, and then quickly squeezing it back shut again. He dragged a hand up to pat the space next to his head. And why yes, that was definitely Thor's chest he was using for a pillow.

"Yes?"

Feeling the steady rhythm of Thor's breathing and the beating of his heart – so loud! – under his cheek, Tony took another second to gather himself. And came to another, slightly belated realisation; it was in fact all of Thor that Tony was using as a mattress.

Trying to gather himself, Tony took a crack at opening his eyes again. This time he blinked a few times at the burning sensation and then squinted, resisting the urge to slam them shut again.

"Umm… what time is it?" Tony mumbled.

The thought that that was definitely a very naked Thor under him, was making an insistent bid for attention. All things considered it was definitely better than having Thor on top of him – nudity optional – because the idea of a Tony pancake was not attractive. Thor was _heavy_.

"10:43 p.m. sir," Jarvis said, with what Tony was betting was smugness hidden behind the bland tone.

"I have missed team breakfast," Thor said, sounding only slightly mournful.

"Sorry," Tony said. He grabbed the back of the couch, in an attempt to leverage himself off of Thor in the least awkward way possible. The movement unfortunately made him very aware of exactly how hung over he was, then again, at least it distracted him from the fact that they were both very, very naked.

"No matter, it was the Black Widow's turn to cook," Thor answered.

Well, at least no one would wonder about Thor's absence. Of all the things Natasha was awesome at, cooking was not one of them. 

...and Tony really didn't want to think about food right now.

Thor did his part in extricating himself from under Tony, and sat up at one end of the couch. Tony flopped back down into something that was almost a sitting position. "You been awake for long?"

Tony shivered a bit, realising that he really wouldn't mind a blanket of some kind right now. There usually was one around somewhere, he slept in the workshop often enough that he'd finally figured he might as well keep a blanket in there.

"It has been some hours," Thor said vaguely, in what Tony took as an attempt at being diplomatic. He took a moment to consider the fact that Thor had been lying, naked, under him for _hours_ without waking him up.

Tony rubbed at his temples. He was so not up to thinking about any of this, the pounding headache was making it hard to concentrate on anything.

"Do you need something?" Thor asked helpfully, though he didn't sound concerned exactly. Tony looked at him in what must have been a questioning way, because Thor offered up an explanation. "I have not always felt my best after a night of revelry."

"Oh," Tony said less than eloquently. He'd have to remember to tell Jarvis to remind him never to attend an Asgardian party. If they were enough to leave Thor hungover, they'd probably leave Tony dead. "Actually, there's some painkillers over there." Tony pointed toward one of the workbenches, then draped his arm over his eyes. He heard Thor getting up, and couldn't resist lifting his arm to take a look at his backside, as he moved in the direction Tony had pointed.

Well, it certainly was something worth looking at, he thought as he listened to Jarvis give Thor some more specific directions. The returning view was pretty spectacular as well, though Tony only caught a glance before lowering his arm back over his eyes, he felt just a bit... off, staring at Thor quite that blatantly. Not that it seemed like Thor felt the least bit awkward about the nudity, judging by the way he hadn't made a single move to find anything to wear. Neither had Tony of course, but that was mostly because that would have required _moving_.

"Thanks," Tony said, taking the pills and the bottle of water Thor was holding out, trying not to stare at the nude god in front of him. Which wasn't all that easy when certain parts of Thor's anatomy were _right in front of his face_! 

Thankfully Thor took a few steps away and Tony quickly swallowed the pills, following them up with a long swig from the bottle of water. The next thing he knew Thor was covering him with the blanket he'd unearthed from somewhere.

"Thanks," Tony mumbled again, finally giving up any pretence of sitting up and instead making himself as comfortable as possible on the couch. Closing his eyes, he pulled at the blanket until it settled more comfortably on him.

"I'll leave you to your rest," Thor told him.

Tony mumbled a wordless response and then listened to Thor's footsteps.

"Mr. Odinson? I believe I should point out that your state of dress would be notable to the other Avengers." If Jarvis' had been talking to Tony there was no way that wouldn't have been delivered with a side of snark, but apparently Thor only got sincere politeness.

Not that Tony made a habit of wandering around naked, but Jarvis found enough to say about his clothing anyway.

"Ah, thank you my friend."

* * *

"What do we know about Asgardian…" Tony grimaced, and then flicked his hand in the air. "Relationships."

It wasn't that Tony felt awkward about what had happened – that kind of thing was for people who weren't Tony Stark. And he definitely didn't regret it – why would he? It was just that he'd thought that the aftermath would be… well, that there'd be more of an aftermath.

"What kind of relationships are you referring to, sir?" Jarvis asked, nothing more than polite inquiry making itself known in his voice. And Tony would have bet there was some quietly sniggering side process running somewhere.

"You know exactly what I mean." Tony took a sip of his whiskey – no way would he have started this conversation entirely sober – and leaned his head back against the couch, looking up at the ceiling.

If he had thought about it beforehand – which he hadn't – he probably would have expected Thor to reveal what had happened to everyone, one way or another. If they were handing out awards for the most discreet Avenger, Thor wouldn't be the one to get it. Neither would Tony of course, but that was beside the point – it'd be Natasha, or maybe Bruce.

"In that case, sir. Not very much."

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

This far Thor's behaviour hadn't changed one bit. And no one had noticed anything, mostly because there just wasn't anything to notice. If he didn't have Jarvis to confirm that what he thought had happened, really had happened, he might have suspected that he'd gotten drunk enough to have hallucinated the whole thing.

"You could ask Mr. Odinson."

"Because that's a great idea," Tony said, with a heavy dose of sarcasm. "I don't want Thor thinking I'm… pining, or something."

Thor would probably be _understanding_ and _earnest_ , or he'd just be confused or… in any case, Tony would end up having to explain himself, and that just wouldn't end well.

Besides there wasn't any kind of problem. Things were normal, and that's what Tony wanted – or whatever passed for normal with this ragtag bunch of would be heroes, but that was an entirely different topic. If he'd known that a one night stand with the god of thunder would change absolutely nothing, he would have done it sooner. And maybe just a little bit less drunk.

"You have been unusually preoccupied because of the event."

Tony leaned forward to pick up the bottle of whiskey from the floor. He'd had sex with a god – or alien, or whatever you wanted to call Thor – and he couldn't really remember if it'd been good or not. Now, really, Tony would argue that that was not something to be completely unconcerned about.

"It's weird. You have to admit it's weird," he said, while pouring himself another drink. "This is Thor we're talking about, large, blond, earnest, wears his heart on his sleeve _Thor_." Tony waved his hands in the air, in a way that in no shape or form resembled Thor, managing not to spill anything.

"I'm sorry sir, but what did you want Mr. Odinson to do?" Jarvis asked, with what sounded like polite curiosity.

"I don't want him to do anything!"

"Well then, sir. It would seem that he's done exactly what you wanted.

"I know."

* * *

"How's it coming?" Tony asked as he strolled into Bruce's lab. 

"Do you ever knock? " Bruce asked, scowling down at whatever it was he was working on. And that was all the answer Tony really needed for his question; Bruce was usually a lot more affable.

"On what? The doors open automatically." Tony chose to ignore the fact that the access to Bruce's lab was actually restricted, and that currently he was the only one who could stroll in unannounced. He wondered if Bruce realised that he could ask Jarvis to move Tony to the same limited access list as the rest of the Avengers, or if he just chose not to. Maybe he should have told Bruce about that at some point?

Bruce took a deep breath and relaxed visibly. He turned to face Tony. "Did you want something?" he asked, sounding mostly tired. 

"I just haven't seen you for a while."

"It'd help if you ever left your workshop." More than a bit of snark had crept into Bruce's tone, and yeah, Bruce _really_ wasn't in the best of moods.

"You're one to talk," Tony said affably, wandering over to look at what Bruce was working on.

"Well, I usually show up for breakfast. I think I've seen you there once."

Tony shrugged. "Too early."

"There's a reason we all show up, you know," Bruce said his tone almost forcefully mild.

 _And how many times has the Hulk shown up_ , Tony didn't say. It still wasn't his issue to deal with. "And how goes the team bonding?" Tony asked instead. He poked at the blood samples on the table, and got a glare for the effort.

"You do remember it was your idea for everyone to move here?" Bruce asked pointedly. Tony took a step away from Bruce's work and turned his gaze on the man, there was no point in irritating him too much. Well, nothing that was conducive to what Tony wanted right then anyway.

"And it was an awesome idea," Tony answered. "But come on, team _breakfast_."

Bruce shrugged slightly. "It's the only time we're all mostly here."

"So, how is it, really?"

Bruce gave him a suspicious look, and those just looked so adorable on him, that it was impossible to take them seriously. "Why?"

"Hey, maybe I want to try it out. I just need to know the lay of the land first."

And that was definitely a look of blatant disbelief that Tony was getting now. But, with a small shake of his head, Bruce answered him anyway. "Fine, I guess. Natasha's convinced Clint to take over her turns at cooking. I'm sure he wanted something in return, but no one's dared to ask about it. Steve disapproves of course, but he knows to pick his battles." As he talked, a small smile made its way to Bruce's lips. "And no one misses the food."

Tony turned his gaze back to Bruce's work and hummed, a bit distractedly, in answer. "How about Thor?"

"He's happy that the food is better."

"He didn't actually say that where Natasha could hear, did he?" Tony asked, pulling up Bruce's notes in the air in front of him with a few gestures. "Do you mind?"

"Would that stop you?" Bruce must have looked at what Tony had pulled up, because the next thing he said was: "I'm pretty sure I wrote those down in a notebook."

Tony shrugged. "Uhh… it's good to have backups?" he suggested, turning to look at Bruce. "You can tell Jarvis not to make copies if you like." He looked at the unhappy set of Bruce's jaw, and repressed a sigh – and things had been going so well this far. "They're only accessible in here anyway." The _I'm not spying on you_ , was implied Tony hoped.

For a moment, the silence seemed deafening, before Bruce made a vague gesture at the notes floating in the air. "Just… oh, go ahead." There was maybe just a bit too much resignation in Bruce's voice, though considering the research in question Tony couldn't quite decide if that was good or bad.

He turned back to the notes, with a brief smile towards Bruce. He skimmed through the first page, that was… not exactly what he'd expected. Considering it was notes about Bruce – the Hulk… whatever – he probably should have realised that there'd be more than a bit personal information involved. He quickly flipped forward, only glancing through the pages. There were feelings, and… other stuff – some of it read more like a diary than research.

Tony paused on one of the more recent pages, since it finally seemed relevant to Bruce's current attempt.

"No one is stupid enough to say that in Natasha's presence."

"What?" Tony asked, startled out of his reading by Bruce's sudden words. "Oh, Thor," he said in realisation. He hadn't actually meant to get distracted by Bruce's research notes – diary? – but the stuff was fascinating.

Bruce's chuckle was a quiet, restrained thing. Tony couldn't really deny the swell of warmth the sound caused, and was briefly very happy Bruce couldn't see his face right then. The man was too serious half the time – or all the time really – and Tony didn't care if he had good cause or not, it still wasn't healthy.

"You really should try to come, at least once Tony," Bruce said, his voice quietly earnest in a way that left Tony searching for words.

"Maybe," he conceded after a moment and finally turned to look at Bruce, who was currently busy moving his blood samples away from Tony. "I'm not going to break them."

Bruce gave him a look that might have been disbelief, but was probably just exasperation. He got that one a lot.

* * *

Thursday. Now, there was a world somewhere, where it was actually funny that someone had decided to assign Thor for permanent breakfast duty on Thursdays. Not that it didn't make some kind of sense, Tony supposed. At least it made it easy enough to keep track of when it was Thor's turn to cook, and sadly for everyone else in the world, everyone didn't have Jarvis – or Pepper – to keep track of things for them.

He wondered if Thor could actually tell Thursdays apart from other days, in some weird Asgardian way. Tony caught himself at that thought, and shook his head slightly. That was just stupid, it wasn't like Thor was an actual god with some weird-ass mystic day sensing abilities.

He stepped out of the elevator, and wandered over to the kitchen area. The whole team was gathered around the table, in varying amounts of clothing. "Am I late?" Tony asked casually.

A boxer clad, bleary eyed Clint tilted his head back – at what had to be an awkward angle – to look behind himself at Tony. "What are you doing here?"

"Good morning Tony," Steve said, almost at the same time, sounding annoyingly pleased and not particularly surprised. And Tony knew there was no way Steve could have been expecting him to make his first appearance today of all days, though the man was stubborn enough to believe that Tony would show up eventually – which he now had, so point to the Super Annoying Soldier then.

"Steve," he acknowledged with a nod. It was easier all around, Tony had found, to just be polite back at the man. "Nice shorts, Katniss," he added toward Clint, walking past him towards the empty seat at the table.

Clint looked down at his boxers, which were adorned with small cartoon versions of Iron Man. "Do you like them? I have a pair without the armor."

If that was actually true, Tony would definitely need to have a word with his PR department. There were some things he'd prefer not to have his face on.

"He does," Natasha confirmed blandly. Following that up with serenely taking a bite out of a muffin that actually didn't look half bad.

Tony slid into the empty chair, between Thor and Steve. He was pretty sure the round breakfast table with exactly five chairs had shown up after he'd been here the last time. Bruce smiled at him from across the table.

"Here," Thor said, putting down what seemed to be a bowl of some sort of porridge in front of him. It had red berries in it.

Natasha slid the plate of muffins toward him.

"What do you wish to drink?" Thor asked. "I have been told that orange juice is a suitable drink for breakfast." He frowned slightly in a way Tony took to mean that he didn't quite agree with that assessment.

"That's fine," Tony answered distractedly. He might have overlooked the fact that he would be expected to have actual breakfast if he showed up. Tony didn't even remember the last time he'd had breakfast, eating usually happened several hours after he'd woken up.

"It's healthy," Steve said, sounding slightly defensive.

Thor got up, presumably to get him a glass – why they'd had an extra bowl at the table, but not another glass was anyone's guess. Clint dragged the plate of muffins back toward himself, giving Tony a glare. Like Tony had any designs on his precious muffins.

"How did you like the movie?" Natasha directed the question at Steve, picking up on some discussion they've had before Tony had entered the room, he assumed. He tuned out Steve's answer as he poked at his porridge with a spoon.

He nodded at Thor when he put the glass of juice down next to the porridge. Thor sat down in his own chair, and leaned ever so slightly toward Tony. "I am still not entirely used to breaking fast so soon after rising for the day," Thor said. Tony turned to look at him as Thor picked up his own glass of orange juice, his brows furrowing ever so slightly as he took a drink from it. "But learning how to cook breakfast has been interesting."

"There were a few… less traditional choices in breakfasts," Bruce said from the other side of Thor, in friendly amusement.

"There is nothing wrong with smoked cod for breakfast," Thor stated matter of factly.

"With all your experience in breakfasts, who could argue," Clint said from around his muffin. A muffin that Tony was only now wondering if Thor had actually _baked_.

Natasha swatted him on the arm. "You should broaden your horizons."

"Did you make the muffins?"

Ignoring Clint's hoarding tendencies, Thor leaned over and grabbed one of the remaining muffins, putting it down in front of Tony next to his – as of yet untouched – porridge and orange juice. "Yes," he declared rather proudly.

Contemplating that mind boggling idea, Tony stuck a spoonful of the porridge in his mouth, since he had the feeling Thor wouldn't stop looking at him expectantly until he did. Taking into account the fact that he was eating porridge, and that it was too early to eat in the first place, it was actually not bad.

"I didn't think Asgardian warriors baked much." The quiet conversation between Steve and Natasha ground to a halt. He could feel everyone looking at him and the sense of disapproval hovering over the table was nearly tangible.

Okay, so that was a big no as far as conversation topics went, apparently.

"You are right, but I am on Midgard," Thor said, squaring his shoulders – as if they hadn't been straight enough to begin with. "Many things are different here."

"Well, I still say you should get me the recipe for that mead you keep talking about," Tony said, briefly touching Thor's shoulder. "I'm sure I could find someone who could brew that for us."

"Now that would be a suitable drink for breakfast," Thor announced with a broad smile.

Tony noticed that the disapproving silence seemed to have turned a lot more bewildered. What? Did everyone think he never talked to Thor at all? They'd spent more than a couple of nights drinking together in the past six months.

"I'll drink to that," Tony said, taking a gulp from his orange juice. He grimaced at the taste, Thor was definitely right about that.

"We're not going to add alcohol of any kind to the breakfast menu," Steve said, his tone not particularly serious, but still faintly disapproving. Tony suspected it was only because Steve didn't actually think anyone was being serious about it.

"There goes Tony's plan for his turn." Clint's grin was unrepentant.

"Oh, dream on. I don't need to cook," Tony said. " _I_ have money."

"We all cook," Steve said.

"She doesn't." Tony nodded at Natasha and they all turned to look at her. She gave them a serene smile.

"So, what movie where you talking about?" Tony asked.

* * *

Tony closed the phone and resisted the urge to throw it away from him. Why had he thought it was a good idea to call Pepper and ask… He didn't need her permission to ask anyone out. Even if they were Norse gods.

He groaned, and covered his eyes with one hand. He did not want to think about it. Damned Jarvis for pointing out Pepper's opinions about… certain things in the first place.

Tony had spent the last two days after his foray into team bonding locked in his workshop; he'd had important things to do. He'd admit that the team breakfast had been a less traumatic experience than he might have expected, but that didn't mean he was going to do it again anytime soon.

If Tony had to give an opinion about it, it seemed like the together time had actually done some good for the team. Not that they weren't still a bunch of misfits that had no business trying to work together. And last time they'd needed the Hulk to make an appearance, he'd still punched Thor in the face the moment Thor had said anything to him.

Speaking of which, he really did need Thor if he wanted to test the new – hopefully Thor resistant – earpiece. Thor was damned hard on electronics. One of these days Tony would take the time to design a cell phone that was Thor proof as well, at least that way they might be able to contact him when he vanished off somewhere. Not that that had happened much now that Thor was single again.

"Is Thor around?"

"He's in his room," Jarvis answered promptly. "Should I inform him you need him, sir?"

Tony frowned at the finished prototype of an earpiece. It'd be a good idea to have it working before the next emergency. Steve would be pleased.

"If he's not busy."

"Not particularly, sir. Shall I ask him?"

Tony picked up the earpiece. "Have him meet me on the roof."

* * *

Tony looked up towards the distant figure of Thor, and the lightning that arced down into the hammer. It was hard to tell from this distance, but for a moment it seemed like all of Thor was… sparking.

"Can you still hear me?" Thor's voice sounded in his ear.

"Yeah. Loud and clear."

"So far this seems to be performing better than the last one."

"Well, let's not trust that quite yet. Go–" Tony waved a hand in the air, even though he was pretty sure even Thor couldn't quite make out specific hand gestures at this distance. "–do stuff. Maybe try not to make it rain all over the city? Steve will be annoyed at us if we get more complaints."

"He does worry about what people think about the Avengers," Thor agreed, suddenly flying higher and a moment later Tony couldn't even see him anymore as he vanished behind a mass of clouds.

"It's what I have PR people for," Tony said. There was a distant crack of thunder, but no answer. "Thor?"

"I can hear you most clearly. This will be helpful in coordinating our battles."

Tony stifled a yawn, he hadn't really slept for the last two days, while he was finishing off the design for this. It seemed like the lack of sleep was starting to catch up with him. "That's the idea."

There was another crack of thunder in the distance.

"Do you want to go out on a date?" There was silence, and then a few drops of water fell down. "Thor?" Tony asked, not wanting to think too much about how his voice had sounded.

Lightning arced across the sky, and the clouds seemed darker. The rain drops started falling heavily against him.

Thor landed in front of him. The wind had picked up and was making the red cape billow, and some of Thor's hair had blown across his face. Thor swiped the hair away. "Yes."

"Oh, umm…that's it?"

"What else would you want me to say?" Thor asked, following the question up with one of those entirely sincere smiles and Tony could feel himself smiling back.

The rain was falling steadily on them now, and moving inside would probably have been a good idea. Tony brushed some of his wet hair back and blinked at the water falling into his eyes. "Is this because…" he trailed off, _because of me_ just sounded too much like something out of a romance novel.

Thor's cheeks seemed to colour slightly, but his grin was mostly mischievous. "We might have to suffer through another lecture about inconveniencing the citizens of this fair city."

"I can live with that." Tony shrugged. "But I don't think I can live with getting a cold because of this. I need a dry set of clothes." He yawned again. "And I suppose sleep wouldn't be a bad idea."

"Of course, I apologise." 

Tony waved his hand dismissively. There was some slightly awkward shifting before both of them started moving inside.

"Should I inform the Captain about our success, or do you wish to do it?" Thor asked once they were inside the elevator. Tony stared at him for a moment, wondering why that would be the first thing on Thor's mind, before realising he was talking about the earpiece. Tony might really need that sleep.

"Go ahead," Tony said, trying to parade his brilliance in front of Steve once again would probably not do Tony any favours. "He might yell at you less about the rain."

"Once you have been confronted with the disapproval of the All-Father, there is very few scoldings you cannot take." Thor smiled ruefully. "Even the good Captain pales in comparison."

The elevator doors opened and Tony went to step out when Thor's hand on his arm stopped him. Tony didn't really have time to react before he was swept up into a kiss. And… well, that was... different. He wasn't exactly used to kissing people who could overpower him without even thinking about it. And no, Tony definitely hadn't just discovered that he had a _thing_ for that. Nope. Not at all.

The kiss ended much too soon for Tony's liking. Not much of a kiss at all, really. "I shall see you later?" Thor asked, one arm still around Tony, holding him close. "There is still much I don't know about Midgardian 'dates.'"

"Date, yeah. We'll definitely talk about that later." Tony moved his hand to Thor's neck and Thor graciously let himself be pulled into another kiss. It was slow, and almost tentative, but at least Tony had the time to actually participate this time.

As they parted, Tony tried to stifle yet another yawn. "Later," Thor told him, and this time it sounded more like a promise.

Tony stepped out of the elevator, and watched the doors close on Thor. He started walking towards his bedroom, yeah sleep first. He'd think about things later.

He wiped the water that was still slowly dripping from his hair away from his face. Maybe a warm shower first.


End file.
